The Lady of Time: Human
by RogueMetamorph
Summary: HIATUS: A lonely man stood within his magic blue box as it traveled through the Vortex, unaware of the knocking on his door. Little did the Doctor know he would soon meet a woman with a fob watch who would change his life forever... Pre-Season 1/Beginning of S1. Time Lady OC/The 9th Doctor. Beginning of The Lady of Time Saga.
1. The Little Box

**The Lady of Time Saga: Human**

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 **Disclaimer:** **I don't own** _ **Doctor Who**_ **(TV show, books, comic books, movies and etc.) which includes any of its characters, dialogue and story arcs. I also don't own Marvel Comics with relation to Tony Stark/Iron Man or** **any other book, movie, song, character or dialogue I may have mentioned along the way. I just so happened to use it for nonprofit able fun in my spare time.**

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 **Author's Note:** **This is the _Doctor Who_ AU-ish fan fiction of my original character, a Time Lady named simply _The Lady_. I know that there are more than a dozen of these floating around out there but I wanted to try a hand of my interpretation of having a Time Lady in the universe of Doctor Who, rewriting some of the sad scenes with my view point and even trying some things that some of the author's haven't thought of quite yet. I hope you stick around for the Lady and enjoy! **

**_WARNING!_** **I know that the Ninth Doctor is much happier than the one I depict in this prologue chapter but I'm going off of the idea that he's more openly depressed after what he'd done. It is only after he meets my character that he starts to be the chipper/sassy Nine that we know and love.**

 ** _FURTHER WARNING!_** **This first chapter contains some slightly spoiler-y stuff for anyone who hasn't gotten past _The Day of the Doctor_. Fair warning!**

 ** _ALSO!_** **I have a Pinterest account where you can look up our resident Time Lady. My profile name there is the same as it is here. Just look up RogueMetamorph or The Lady/Doctor Who. Message me if you need help finding it. (For this first incarnation I'm imagining Jacqueline Bisset/Maggie Smith.)**

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 **DIALOGUE:**

"Normal dialogue,"  
" _ **Dialogue heard through technology/speakers/television/radio/etc**_ ,"  
" **DIALOGUE FROM DALEKS** ,"  
" _DIALOGUE FROM CYBERMEN_ ,"  
" _Dialogue in another language_ ,"  
' _Telepathic speaking between characters_ ,'  
 _Special dialogue_.  
Writing.

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 **Chapter 1 – S0xE00 – The Little Box**

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 _Tick tock goes the clock_

 _The Moment has arrived_

 _Tick tock goes the clock_

 _The traitor has survived_

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A lonely man stood within his magic blue box, hollow tapping mixing with the ever present wheezing in the background. His eyes remained unfocused with thought even as his hands moved across the controls before him with practiced precision. After more than nine hundred years of flying his TARDIS (give or take a few hundred years, he couldn't remember) he had little trouble flying it… most of the time. Even without the additional pilots meant to be standing around the controls, he could still fly through the Vortex with ease. Many of the Time Lords had been forced to learn to fly with three or less pilots at the end, but he'd been doing so long before that.

The Doctor stared dully across the controls of the TARDIS's glowing console, his hands moving on their own accord as the tapping continued. There wasn't too much to be worried about as the box flew, not much to run into nowadays. And he had nowhere urgent to go, no one to see… he traveled aimlessly, helping those he could as he went, hoping to right his wrongs after what he'd done. Maybe if he helped, maybe if there was just one day where everyone got to live, maybe there would be a better reason for him to exist other than as the Murderer.

Since he'd regenerated after the Time War he hadn't spent much time with people, hadn't taken on a companion like he had before the war. He didn't feel like he deserved any of that. He hadn't forgotten the pain he felt after what he'd done to his planet but sometimes it felt all consuming, knowing that there was no one but him now. There was no Gallifreyan, no Time Lords, no other TARDIS. Just him and his blue box. That knowledge sometimes made the ache in his hearts unbearable, that knowledge that he'd made himself the last. Despite all that the Time Lords had become near the end, there was still the good he'd destroyed with the bad; namely the children.

He'd destroyed it all.

The Doctor sighed as he walked around the console, his worn leather jacket hanging loosely around his shoulders like a sad badge of honor. The lights flashed before him and he barely noticed his hand moving to pull the lever that would rectify the issue. Flipping one last switch that kept the TARDIS floating within the Time Vortex, he took a step backward to sag into the captain's chair as the knocking continued.

Maybe he could scan for alien tech if he became desperate for—

"Hold on," the Doctor breathed as he came to his feet, giving the doors opposite from him a curious tilt of his head. He stood for a second, listening. And there it was again; the knocking on the wood doors, a constant beat of three knocks. The Doctor stared, looking at the doors of the TARDIS with a confounded expression. "Somebody's knocking?"

That might not be so odd… if he wasn't currently floating out in space.

The Doctor was instantly rushing at the doors, curiosity the driving force as he moved. However, he came to a stop just before the doors, his hands clutching the cold metal handles as he stared at the grains of the door. The first possibility that came to mind was that the mysterious knocking was caused by a Dalek… a Dalek with a sense of humor to knock on the doors so that the Doctor would allow it in without a fight. But that was a ridiculous thought. There were no more Daleks in the same way that there were no more Time Lords or Gallifreyans.

He'd killed them all.

It was curiosity that made his fingers itch against the door, but it was eagerness that finally forced him to fling the doors open.

At first he didn't see it. He stood there for a long moment staring into the sparkling elegance of space with a dumbfounded and disappointed expression. The thought that he'd gone mad was plausible until he caught sight of the little box floating a foot from his face. He stared in shock at the white cube, waiting patiently for him to pluck it from the air.

He didn't however.

He stared at it instead. The cube floated in the air before him under its own power, glowing white from within. It made little noise other than a soft humming that might have been someone singing in his ear if he hadn't known there wasn't anyone else around. For a long moment he wasn't fully able to comprehend the little glowing box or the fact that the little cube was familiar to him. He almost felt as if touching it would cause it to pop back out of existence, prove for the last time that he'd finally lost his mind completely because what was staring him in the face was far too excruciating because… this little box… it was a psychic container. Part of the Time Lord emergency messaging system, one of these could be sent out through time and space with a message for help.

Sent out by a Time Lord.

He snatched it from the air, staring at it skeptically as he turned it over in his hands thoughtfully, studying the cube. It was clean, not at all aged, looked to be untampered with. There was no symbol on it to indicate who it was from but that didn't matter. Only the most elevated Time Lords typically stamped their names on a psychic container, mostly to get the rescue party to hurry along for them. The last of insignia only meant that the remaining Time Lord was not likely to be one he recognized.

"Well, hello," he breathed to the cube as he jerked his sonic screwdriver out of his pocket. "Who might you be?"

With a buzz of the screwdriver, the cub jerked once before lighting up even bright as words spilled out; "… _Please_ …" a voice whimpered, a woman's voice that sounded broken with sorrow. "… _I'm all alone here… I don't know where I am… I'm all alone_ …"

The Doctor winced, but continued to listen as the voice gained strength.

"… _If there is anyone out there_ …" She stopped for a long moment before continuing. " _My name is the Lady of the House of Heartshaven of the Prydonian Chapter. I was a general and TARDIS pilot during the Time War... and may very well be the last Time Lord in existence_. _However, if you are receiving this message, that means you are not alone_ ,"

Those words had him sucking in a breath as if he'd been punched in the stomach or, more accurately, trampled by an angry bronto. _Not alone_. He was not alone.

" _My TARDIS malfunctioned and I've been stranded_ —"She stopped for a long moment, the sounds of a door opening filling the silence. "— _on Earth? … early twentieth century? I think I'm on the northern hemisphere. I'm not very good at Earth locations. My husbands was—"_

A myriad of unintelligible voices filled the air before stopping on one voice again, one that was masculine; " _I will never leave you… As long as we're together, we'll survive this_ —" The words cut off and the Doctor almost thought that was the end of it before her voice suddenly returned again.

" _I don't know if any Time Lords will survive the war or will even come in search of me if we are victorious… I helped the Doctor to_ — _"_

Again, a million whispering voices overshadowed hers until one painfully familiar voice broke over them all to announce; " _No more_ ,"

 _"_ — _so I will use the Chameleon Arch. If you come for me, you'll have to convince my human self to open the watch. If there is no one left, I will die as a human with no memory of the hell that was the Time War_ …"

The Doctor stared at the little box as the bright white light died down into a warm glow within his hand, remaining there like an unopened gift. The idea that he wasn't alone in the universe should have and perhaps did make him happy, overjoyed even but… the thought of another Time Lord left his insides muddled, unsure of what to do.

 _Please… I'm all alone_.

Her voice echoed in his head, drowning out the ever present noise of the TARDIS. She'd been scared and alone, with no idea of what had been happening on the other side of the universe from where her TARDIS had crashed. She'd been alone.

He didn't move right away.

As a human, no matter who she'd been as a Time Lord, she deserved to be able to die at a peacefully old age with the belief that she was human. As a human she likely had lived a long and blissfully war free life. She probably had settled down for a simple life with a spouse, surrounded by children and grandchildren. She probably died peacefully in her sleep as he knew that he'd never be able to do. What right did he have to wake her from her dream only to bring her into his nightmare?

Could he be that selfish?

The Doctor stood, going to the console with a slow, if not hesitant, step.

He didn't even know her, yet he felt sorry for her— for the pain that she was going to remember because of him.

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 _Tick tock goes the clock_

 _Back to Earth he flew_

 _Tick tock goes the clock_

 _Now knowing there was two_

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 **Author's Note: What do you think? Are you going to stick around for more?**


	2. The Science-Fiction Writer

**Human**

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 **Chapter 2 – 0x00 – The Science-Fiction Writer**

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 _Tick tock goes the clock_

 _A Time Lady had landed_

 _Tick tock goes the clock_

 _Forever she was stranded_

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 _He didn't even know her, yet he felt sorry for her— for the pain that she was going to remember because of him_.

The Doctor stood beside his blue box, staring intently at the silent mansion which sat across the street with a broken shed standing forgotten in the backyard.

For nearly two weeks, he'd searched for the Time Lady. First he'd easily been able to limit the search to the United States, had further zeroed in on Montana, and then eventually a city called Helena. From there, things had become increasingly frustrating. Despite the cube that had found in the depths of space, her TARDIS had defenses up to keep from being detected, even from a Time Lord in his own TARDIS. He found the only times he could get a lock on her TARDIS was when its defenses failed and released a weak signal to be tracked. He followed the signal to a backyard where he found a rundown shed with olive green paint flaking off the sides, slats of wood needing desperately to be nailed back down before the fell all the way off. He could almost see the perception filter straining at the seams, altering its appearance when he glanced at it out of the corner of his eye.

He reached out, placing his hand on it gently. It groaned heavily and quaked, its power cells running low and inner mechanics breaking down, not to mention the damage it seemed to have taken from the Time War. It only had a few years left if he knew anything about TARDISs. In the wake of its death, this was no doubt the reason the cube had finally found him.

Next the Doctor had turned his attention to the old Victorian house which sat on the property, slightly overgrown by vines and flowers. The house had been purchased in the early 70s by a couple, Alistair and Claudia Thompson. Alistair had been a well-known publisher while Claudia was his most popular published author, together becoming happily married business partners. They'd had two children, became the foster parents of many others, and were philanthropists off of the millions made from Thompson's books.

Claudia Thompson's first novel, _A Time of the Dying Age_ , still stood as her most popular work among a number of other well written novels. It had been a book about a young woman in the middle of a war between two opposing races, hers and a nameless hoard. After having watched her entire family murdered when the enemy destroyed her ship, the story followed the main character as she fought the metal monsters that threatened to exterminate her people as if they were nothing more than vermin…

The Doctor couldn't help the shiver that went down his spine. He'd read her book and even with how far off the mark her visual representation of them had been, he could have recognized the Daleks from a mile off. He could still remember their robotic, monotones voices as they massacred his people while they ran in fear. He could still feel the heat of a Dalek's laser beam as it whizzed past his head and hit a Time Lord in the chest. It was all too close.

It didn't take long for the Doctor to deduce who the Time Lady might be and what had happened. The woman had used the Chameleon Arch decades ago, turning into a woman who'd taken Earth by storm with her stories of other worlds. Claudia Thompson had gone from a lost girl who'd turned up at a lonely church outside Helena, Montana to a wife and a mother. She'd gone from a forgotten orphan to a world renowned female science fiction author, a philanthropist… She was at the tail end of her life now, biographies and devout fans saying that she'd turned sixty-eight this year.

"And who are you, young man?"

The Doctor looked up in shock, finding the very woman he'd been watching standing on the sidewalk opposite him. Claudia Thompson was dressed in a pair of blue-jeans and sweater that hung loosely around her frail body. She stood straight and elegant despite how old age might have wanted to curl her spine, a cane clutched in one hand to reinforce her aged hip. However, with the expression she wore, he didn't doubt she wouldn't spare a second thought in clobbering him with it. Her white-grey hair curled up against her face, framing a suspicious look with clear blue eyes that pinned him in place when he would have otherwise tried to run away.

He was always running, wasn't he?

"Well?" she challenged him. "Am I going to get an answer or are you going to continue staring at me with that dumbstruck expression?"

"My apologies, ma'am," was his immediate response, crossing the street towards het. With a hand that was all too familiar with the action, the Doctor reached into the breast pocket of his leather jacket as he made his way towards her. He pulled out his psychic paper and flipped it open, offering her a look at the seemingly normal piece of paper. She squinted at it until he was standing with her on her side of the road, pulling out a pair of glasses to sit on the bridge of her nose.

The sheer nearness to her set the Doctor on edge, his fingers itching and his hearts beating frantically in his chest. He shouldn't have been there, observing her when she was living a perfectly normal human life. He shouldn't even be talking to her! Now he was only tempting himself with the possibility of finding her fob watch and having her open it. If she opened it she would be a Time Lady once more. If she opened it she would travel with him as his companion. If she opened it… maybe he wouldn't be so alone.

"Investigative reporter," she read aloud, glancing at him critically out of the corner of her eye, pulling the glasses off her face to tuck them back into her sweater pocket. "And what are you investigating exactly? How an old woman ages?"

"No, ma'am," the Doctor disagreed politely, tucking the psychic paper back into his jacket pocket. "I've taken an interest in science-fiction writers. You were at the top of the list,"

"And you didn't run off for someone like Douglas Adams or Arthur C. Clark?"

He just smiled and shrugged. "I'm looking for the female perspective,"

She frowned at him, not liking his answer. "And I suppose my autobiography can't help you with that? Or that young man's disrespectful retelling of my life couldn't serve as a resource?"

"No, ma'am," the Doctor replied with a shake of his head.

The woman continued to frown at him until he was positive she was about to whack him over the head with her cane. She didn't however. Instead, she made a dismissive gesture with her cane. "I don't believe you, though I doubt you expected me to anyway," She turned toward her house, making her way up the walkway. "Maybe you can think of a better explanation over some coffee,"

He frowned after her. To follow or not to follow, that was the question. If he followed after her, it would only serve as further temptation to do something he knew he shouldn't do. If he followed her he'd be tempted to tease memories out of her, would be tempted to look for her fob watch, to get her to open it… tempted to not be the last Time Lord. All it would take was a bit of prodding if she were unhappy as she was currently.

"Come along, young man!"

The Doctor moved without thinking and suddenly found himself standing in the entry hall of her home. On the walls one either side of him were hooks where no coats hung except for one aged, bright blue raincoat and an obviously male work jacket that hadn't been moved in a number of years. Through an archway to his left he could see the dining room which could sit ten and onward into the enormous kitchen. To his right he could see the living room, an all American, modern decorating scheme that was surprising for an elderly woman's home. Everything was bright and clean, the furniture new and obviously staged.

No one sat in there.

His eyes caught on a nearby mirror, bringing him to it like a moth to a flame as he studied the masculine face watching him curiously. "Not bad…" he conceded before frowning as his eyes spotted the projections on either side of his head. "Oh, the ears though,"

Someone cleared their throat.

The Doctor turned, giving Claudia a guilty smile as she arched an eyebrow at him like a disappointed teacher. "Sorry,"

"You make it sound as if you've never seen your own face before,"

"I have lots of times," the Doctor told her, following her through the house to the kitchen. "It just keeps changing on me and sometimes it takes a bit to catch up to them. Same with the personalities. Never know what you're going to get,"

She glanced at him over her shoulder. "Does your face and personality change often?"

"Every few centuries or so," he answered, not bothering to censor himself around the Time Lady turned human as she went about her business making coffee for them. "It's always a surprise to see what I get. Like picking out a prize from a grab bag. Will I have brown hair or ginger hair? Will I be tall or short? Will I be a Northerner or an Auzzy? I never know until I pop up new,"

Claudia turned to eye him critically, much like he imagined most human grandmothers tended to do to naughty little children in their care. However, the look didn't affect him much at all as he stood smiling happily at her, perfectly at ease before the elderly human woman.

"What is your name?" she asked, pulling the milk from her refrigerator and the sugar from the cupboard.

"The Doctor,"

She glanced over her shoulder at him, waiting for him to finish.

"Just the Doctor," he smiled.

"Then you'll call me just Ms," she snapped at him, hanging her cane off the edge of the counter as the coffee pot finished filling. "Since you're so attached to your curative title,"

He turned his head to look out the back window towards her TARDIS to hide the hint of a smile that twitched at the corner of his mouth, not wanting to make the woman any angrier.

"Would you like cream and sugar?"

"Just milk, thanks,"

Claudia frowned again, opening the cupboard which housed the mugs. The first she pulled down was an oversized black mug that might have been a bowl if the sides hadn't been so tall. As she pulled it down, he noticed the side had typewriter styled writing on the side; **IT'S ONE OF THOSE DAY.** The second mug was much more nondescript. The mug was the size of a typical for a cup with a red color and a rather robotic looking red and yellow face on the side. It reminded him faintly of a Cyberman though it was missing the extensions from the top of the head. This mug had writing beneath the face which said; _**Dammit, Tony!**_ He didn't understand the reference nor did he ask as she handed him the mug filled nearly to the brim with milk.

"Have you thought of a better explanation yet, _Doctor_?" she asked, returning the milk to the refrigerator once she'd add a generous amount to her own cup. "I don't quite believe you're wanting to branch out and be the Author as opposed to the Doctor. Or do you plan to stick with being a doctor who moonlights as an investigative reporter who stalks little old science-fiction writers?"

"I rather like that one," he shrugged, lifting his mug to sniff at the milk.

"You've been flitting around the neighborhood for a week now," she suddenly told him with a harsh expression, waving a hand at him. "Don't think I haven't noticed. Not a lot happens in my neighborhood, let alone a police box appearing on the corner and a strange man walking around as if no one would notice him,"

The Doctor frowned. Had he been so careless?

"I have a fair amount of time on my hands, Doctor," she answered his unspoken question, eyeing him over the lip of her mug. "What do you think I have to do all day but stare out my windows? No one comes to see Ms. Thompson, no fans care to visit their favorite author, there are no children to come visit their mom or grandchildren to visit their grandma…"

She trailed off, staring down into their mug. His hearts ached for her, recognizing an ache that he knew too acutely in his own chest. His hand reached out for her, to comfort her, before he could really think better of it.

"I'll smack you with this cane if you don't wipe that pitying look off your face," she snapped at him, her voice piercing his thoughts and making him flinch back. Now she was glaring at him, her blue eyes shining up at him with pain and embarrassment. "What's your business here?"

"I find your neighborhood quite interesting. Very homey,"

"And what of my shed?" she asked him, with a pleased expression. "Very shed-y?"

"In fact, it is," he smiled at her, hiding the surprise he felt. "Seems it hasn't been touched in a fairly long while, Ms. Thompson. Never thought of getting it repainted?"

A strange expression overtook her face. "N-no," was her answer, making him arch an eyebrow at her. "I don't go back there often. I almost can't remember what's in that silly old shed,"

"Really? Why not?"

She was staring at him with a hard look, frowning at his questions. "Because my husband was the one to take care of the Christmas decorations when January came around,"

"Your husband?" he asked, glancing out the back window at the green shed. "Did he go back there a lot?"

"I-" she cut herself off, frowning curiously. "I don't suppose so. There's not a lot in there. Nothing worth rooting around in there for,"

"Not even the decorations?" he asked.

"As I'm the only one living here, I haven't had cause to decorate and therefore haven't needed to pull out the decorations,"

"Don't most people keep such decorations in their attic?"

"Not always,"

"So why do you keep them in your shed? Why don't you decorate some?"

"I-" now she was outright glaring at him. "Why do you even care, Doctor?"

"What do you expect of a nosey reporter?" he challenged with an easy smile, putting the mug back down on the counter. "I wanted to get to know the famous Claudia Thompson, Christmas decorations and all,"

"You are ridiculous,"

With a roll of her eyes she took another sip of her coffee before setting the oversized mug down on the counter. Silence fell between them, the air seeming to grow heavy with the weight of it and it suddenly became very clear to the Doctor what Claudia had been living with since her husband had passed away. It was a similar existence to his own since he'd put an end to the Time War. The hollow quiet, the way runaway thoughts seemed to echo forever in his head, the resounding quiet of being completely alone with no ability to change it, the memories of loved ones who weren't coming back no matter how much he wished for them to…

"Do you mind indulging me, Ms?" he asked her when it became clear that she wasn't going to speak anymore. "I've been curious about you for quite a while now. Far off worlds, creatures of intellect, languages made up of no sound, ships that flew through the air, time travelers, rituals made for old and new gods, a council of great thinkers that stood alone in the universe…" the Doctor listed off, eyeing her carefully. "Some people just come up with extraordinary things off the tops of their heads, others write down their dreams in little notebooks… I was wondering about you,"

At first, he thought she wouldn't speak with her jaw clenched and her hands grasping tightly to her upper arms. But then she reached out for her mug and gulped down the last of her coffee before looking up at him. In her eyes he could see a very old hurt, something he knew couldn't be gained by sixty-eight years of life on earth.

"Dreams," was her curt answer.

"Pretty elaborate dreams to create something as iconic as your books," the Doctor countered giving her an interested look. "I was especially enthralled by the culture you created for the main character's people. And the brutality of the Hoard…"

She arched an eyebrow at him, trading her cup for her cane. "Are you trying to suggest that I've plagiarized in some way, Doctor? Because I can assure you-"

"Oh, no!" was his instant answer, shaking his head. "Never in a dozen lifetimes, Miss. I was just curious. They are some fairly interesting dreams to be having is all,"

"And they were," she assured him. "Just dreams,"

"Not from any personal experience then?"

To this, she arched an eyebrow. "And what sort of experience would you be talking about, Doctor? It's not as if I experienced the Holocaust first hand,"

"No," he agreed with a nod. "But the way your descriptions come across in your book…"

"There is no personal experience there, Doctor," she told him with finality in her voice. "I had terrible nightmares as a child, nightmares that might have bordered on painfully realistic but nonetheless fictional dreams… I simply was encouraged to document them,"

"By your husband?"

She nodded.

"What did your husband think of your work?" he asked, curiosity leading him towards the absent husband who had been the spouse of a Time Lady.

"He was supportive," she shrugged, a slow smile inching across her mouth. "He was so interested in anything I wrote, anything I had to say, so curious…"Her hand descended into her pocket, fiddling with something there. "Every draft I'd hand him would come with a myriad of new questions. He wanted to know everything he could about everything I wrote and clarify the most unimportant aspects of the culture or characters. Even if I didn't know he would make sure that I did in some respect. I could tell you the backstory of every character, the history of every event and cultural artifact,"

"Like the craft Selene uses to travel through time?" he asked, trying to be as nonchalant as he could as he asked her even though his hearts were beating so loudly he was sure he could hear them.

Claudia snorted at him. "Everyone asks,"

"It _is_ the central point of the story,"

"Well…" she sighed, moving to sit down on one of the stools situated beneath the counter.

The sat for hours talking about her book, about her life, about her family. To the Doctor's surprise, he hadn't become bored a third of the way through the hours of sitting listening to her speak. Most of his conversation happened over the course of minutes in an attempt to get the optimum amount of information in the shortest amount of time in order to save something or someone. It had been a long time since he'd allowed himself to simply sit and listen to someone tell him a story.

And he wasn't disappointed by Claudia's stories. Though he understood some of the Time Lord undertones that she was unknowingly revealing to him, he couldn't help but find the more normal aspects of her human existence to be interesting as well. Her family was one of her favorite conversation points, telling him about her two sons and their children. Though she ended the story of her two sons with their death and she rarely saw her grandchildren, she couldn't help but tell him all she could about the three children who were verging on teenager-dom.

"I don't fault Lory or Gina for not bringing the children around more," Claudia admitted to the Doctor with a heavy sigh, her hand continuing to play with something in her pocket. "The day you lose someone is the worst day you can ever experience and it's hard to be reminded of what you've lost.

"You lose them and every possible moment you could have had with them. It's all gone in a moments and suddenly you are alone. Everything is left to you and you have to pick up those pieces and learn how to continue without them," She swallowed hard, looking up at him. "Grief isn't something that you eventually learn to fold up neatly and put away. It hangs on your shoulders, floats in the back of your mind. It's the sadness you remember when you realize the person you loved isn't where they should be; standing next to you, cranking a bad joke, driving you to the store, lying next to you… Grief lingers, sometimes it fades if you're lucky, but it's never gone,"

The Doctor understood her words painfully well. Knew them and the truth of them so acutely that his hearts ached as he stared down at his hands.

"I miss them all so much sometimes," she sighed, removing her hand form her pocket to reveal a collection of metal. His eyes attached to it instantly, finding that the metal she'd removed from her pocket was in fact an aged fob watch. On its back were circular figures etched into the darkened metal, a familiar writing he'd learned long ago as a Time Tot. She rubbed her thumb over the top of it, her eyes looking up into his with a sad sort of smile. "I gave this to my husband on our honeymoon… and he gave it back the night he-" Claudia took a deep breath, wiping at her dry face. "I'm sorry,"

"It's quite alright," the Doctor assured her, his breathing having nearly stopped as he stared down at her, afraid if he moved that the moment would shatter around him.

She blinked a few times before her eyes focused on his face, smiling at him sheepishly. "I- um… I think it's time to wrap up this interview, Doctor… assuming that this is what it was. I believe I have an appointment I'll be needing to get to soon," She glanced over at the clock on her microwave which flashed that it was well past noon. "If you don't mind,"

"Not at all," the Doctor lied, putting his mug in the sink as he straightened away from his position against the counter. He very much would have liked to have stayed there forever, listening to the woman recount a life that he could never truly have. However, it was enough for him to know that another Time Lord existed in the world and that he hadn't murdered them all.

At least, that was what he told himself.

He allowed her to lead him toward her door, which she opened for him so that he could step out onto her front stoop. He turned back with a kind smile, reaching out a hand to shake hers.

"It was a pleasure meeting you, Miss," he told her, lifting her hand to kiss her aged knuckles. "I can't tell you how much this conversation has meant to me,"

She offered him a kind smile, nodding. "Of course, Doctor. To be honest, it was nice talking to someone. It can get quite lonely here,"

The Doctor didn't comment, only nodding his understanding as he looked out through the door to where his TARDIS stood waiting for him. For months- it had probably been months, it was hard to tell- he'd been floating about the Vortex with nothing by the presence of the TARDIS to keep him company. Very few of his trips outside those blue doors had resulted in a longstanding conversation with someone or anything that took his mind off of that loneliness. So, of all people, he understood what if felt like to be alone.

"Have a wonderful life, Ms. Thompson," he told her with a sad smile, letting go of her hand as he stepped out the door, turning his back to her. "You deserve some peace and quiet,"

He heard a snort from behind him. "How boring. I'll have peace and quiet when I'm dead,"

The door shut soundly behind him as the Doctor chuckled, walking down her driveway towards the sidewalk, hands stuffed into his pockets. It felt bittersweet to be walking away from the only other Time Lord left in the universe, but he knew it was the right thing to do. She'd had a long and fulfilling life, if not a bit tragic one, and she was reaching the end of it like any other human on the planet Earth. It was her time and he was happy to let her finish it in peace.

A rustling sounded from beside him, causing him to look up curiously. At first he suspected a runaway pet or something a paper boy's thrown newspaper that hadn't quite made it to the yard. However, what he didn't expect was to see a suspicious looking mechanical silhouette to disappear into the line of trees that surrounded Claudia Thompson's yard. Though he hadn't gotten a good look at the figure, he instantly knew it wasn't a friendly being. How could he have been so thick as to forget that others might have caught onto her TARDIS's signal? Not only could someone have caught her signal but followed it with the intent of finding out where the distress signal led. And worse? If those following the signal had ill wishes for the former Time Lady?

A shock of fear traveled up the Doctor's spine as he turned back towards the house, his eyes wide. "No… no, no, no, no, no," he hissed through his teeth as he took off back towards the front door, his hearts beating a mile a minute. This wasn't good at all. His hands slammed against the dark would of the door, making his palms ache. He needed to get Claudia out of that house. "Ms. Thompson!" he shouted, slamming his hands against the door. "Ms. Thompson!"

"What?!" she shouted from the other side of the door. Suddenly the door flew open to reveal a very annoyed woman glaring up at him as his fist stopped a foot from her face. He froze, thankful that she'd opened the door but sheepish at the look she was giving him. "Really, Doctor! There is no need to make such a racket. I'm elderly, not deaf,"

"Please, Ms. Thompson! I-"

Her cane was suddenly in her hand, striking out at him. He yelped in surprise, jumping away before turning a puppy dog expression at her. Her expression was dark as she moved to smack his shin again, causing him to jerk back.

"Ow! What was that for?!"

"It's rude to shout and I'm about done with your interruptions of my day," she snapped at him, continuing to swipe her cane at his feet between steps to back him away from the door. "I believe it's time for you to leave,"

"Wait!" he exclaimed, a rush of adrenaline running through him. "Please! Wait! I-"

"I want you gone, Doctor,"

"Please, listen to me," he gasped, dancing about to try to avoid her cane. "Just listen to me! Wait! Please, I've got a brilliant idea!"

"And you make the mistake of thinking I'd want to hear it,"

"Wait! No!" he shouted, slamming a hand against the door when she made a move to slam it in his face, picking up a foot when she attempted to bring her cane down on his toe. "Please, wait! I need to show you something! Please!"

"Out!"

"Please! I need you to come with me, Ms!"

"And why would I-"

She was cut off by the sound of her back door being thrown open and heavy footsteps making their way towards the pair. Her eyes went cartoonish wide she spun around to see the same mechanical figure that the Doctor had spied only moments ago. Though most of the figure was covered in khakis and a tie-dye shirt, the head was visible to both of them. Its expressionless face turned to face them, cogs and whirls sounding beneath the metal surface. Claudia's hand clutched tightly to her cane as she backed up towards the Doctor, not taking her eyes off of the intruder.

"Care to explain?"

"Nope!" was the Doctor's answer as he grabbed her hand. "Run!"

Together, they ran (as well as an sixty-eight year old woman could) out of the house, slamming the old oak door in the face of the figure. Claudia kept up with the Doctor rather well, her footsteps only stuttering when her front door exploded open behind them, splinters of wood raining down on them as they ran across her lawn. Together, they ran across the street towards the blue police box, the Doctor throwing the door open and dragging Ms. Thompson inside after him. He only barely slammed the door in the face of the figure as it came sprinting after them, his back slamming against the wood as if his weight would help to keep it closed.

"What…"

The Doctor's eyes landed on the woman before him, her head tilted up as she observed the center console of the TARDIS before her.

As much as he had wanted this to be an outcome of his conversation with the human, he found that the tightening in his chest in response to having her in his TARDIS was fairly uncomfortable. He'd only just come to terms with leaving her as a human on Earth and now she was in his TARDIS. Now there was a good chance that the human would remember that the world she'd created in her books wasn't completely imaginary and she might remember who she really was. If she remembered that she was not human, she would open her watch. She would know what he'd done and hate him. She would leave him and he'd be alone again. She would be in danger out on her own.

Another Time Lord in his TARDIS…

Oh dear.

He watched her as she leaned heavily against her cane, her hand reaching out to grip the railing to help pull herself towards the center of the control room. She was slow in her movements, partially because of the pain she no doubt felt in her joints but also in awe of what she was seeing. Every move she made was calculated as she moved, coming closer and closer to the console. The Doctor watched as she reached out, her wrinkled fingers coming into contact with the very edge of the controls. He heard her gasp but she made no other move for a long moment, just keeping her hand against the metal as the TARDIS whirled loudly in response to her presence.

"Is…" she stopped, taking a breath as she pulled her hand back. "Is this what I think it is?"

The Doctor didn't speak at first, not daring to shatter the moment he was in. Instead, he watched in silence as she reached out again, this time reaching toward a lever, her fingers wrapping around the handle as if to pull it down. She didn't however, only kept her hand there as if to make sure that the thing and everything that it was attached to was really there.

"I can't…" she trailed off against, her head tilting back to look at the center column of the console which glowed brightly for her. "How is any of this real?"

This time she turned back to look at him, absolute shock on her face as she looked to him for the answer. But all he could do was shrug at her as nonchalantly as he could manage, stepping away from the door of the TARDIS to approach her.

"Asks the science fiction author," he joked, though he felt no humor in his words. "To be honest, I expected a bit more from you,"

She frowned at him, glancing back at the doors behind him. "Are-are we safe in here?"

"Course we are," he grinned proudly, coming up to stand next to her as he patted the TARDIS fondly. "The assembled hordes of Genghis Khan couldn't get through that door. You'd be surprised what the TARDIS can keep out when it sets out to,"

"It's smaller on the outside,"

That made him smile. That was certainly a first. "Yes it is,"

"Is this alien technology?"

"Yes," he nodded. "This is the TARDIS. Time and Relative Dimension in Space,"

"A time traveling capsule?"

He couldn't help the twitch in his face at her words. His granddaughter had been the one to name the TARDIS. Otherwise, the Time Lords called his machines and those like it a TT capsule. "Yes,"

"Like in my stories?"

"Yes,"

"You can travel through time?"

"When I want to,"

"And space?"

"That too,"

"Are you human?"

"Nope,"

"Which would mean you're an alien?"

"Yes. That alright?"

She eyed him. "And you _look_ human,"

"Well," he chuckled, come to stand beside her. " _You_ actually look Time Lord,"

A flash of recognition entered her eyes as she looked up at him, so quickly that he almost thought he'd imagined it. She was watching him with a frown on her face, seeming to be taking all of this in with relative ease though she didn't seem quite able to believe it all. In truth, he hoped she didn't quite believe him, then maybe she wouldn't remember.

"And what does that mean?" she asked almost tentatively, as if she was afraid to know the answer. "What is a Time Lord?"

"A type of order from my world," he told her honestly. "It's complicated,"

"Is it just you in here?"

He frowned, feel that familiar ache in his chest as he became acutely aware of how quiet it was in the universe. He took a breath and nodded honestly. "Just me,"

"You're alone?"

Again, he nodded.

She looked up at him again before a frown drew down the sides of her mouth as she studied him, as if realizing that her line of question was going someplace it shouldn't. "And why is someone like you parading around as an investigative reporter?" she asked him, turning to eye him suspiciously. "Sure there have to be more interesting people to be spending your time on in the world- in the universe,"

The Doctor shrugged at her. "You'd be surprised how interesting you are, Ms. Thompson,"

She snorted at him. "Apparently, if I have something like that coming after me," she said, motioning towards the doors of the TARDIS. "And why exactly was alien technology coming after me in my home? Why does it want me? What for? Why are you helping me?"

"Help is what I do," he told her honestly, leaning back against the console. "You didn't think I'd just leave you back there with that thing did you?"

"You could have,"

"I _didn't_ ,"

"So is that what you are?" she asked him, gesturing back towards the door. "Policeman of the universe. Helping the little people?"

"I prefer Doctor if you don't mind,"

Claudia rolled her eyes at him. "Well then, _Doctor_. Why-?"

"Too many questions," he told her with a smirk, spinning on his heels toward the console where he began pulling levers and moving switches. "How about we leave all of this trouble behind and I show you a bit of the universe?" He finished flipping one last switch before he turned to look at her. "Curious to see what all you got right in those stories of yours?"

"You want me, a sixty-eight year old human, to come along on adventure in your time machine shaped like a British police box?" she clarified, watching him as he nodded at her. "Wouldn't you be better off with a young sprite-ly thing?"

"No. Just you," he grinned brightly. "Besides, can't leave you hear with a kill robot, can I?"

She wasn't buying it, leaning on her cane in a way that was vaguely stubborn. "Why are you really here, Doctor?"

"Take one trip with me," he asked her, ignoring her question. "Just one. And then I'll return you home, killer robot free. Come on, what do you say?"

Claudia eyed him suspiciously before glancing at the door. At first he thought she would turn to him and refuse in some way. However, as he watched her think, he eventually caught sight of a twitch at the corner of her mouth that soon turned into a radiant smile. She turned to look at him, mischief glittering in her eyes and laughed.

"How could I refuse?"

* * *

 _Tick tock goes the clock_

 _The fob watch is to blame_

 _Tick tock, the lady stopped_

 _Remembering her name_

* * *

 **Author's Note: Sorry if that seemed sort of quick but I want to move past this and into the episodes as soon as possible... I'd like to know what you guys think of Claudia. Mostly because, right now, she's a sixty-eight year old woman (I imagine her being Maggie Smith-like though someone said they imagined her as Meryl Streep). What do you guys think?**


	3. The End of the World

**Human**

* * *

 **Chapter 3 – 1x02 – The End of the World**

* * *

"Right then, Ms. Thompson. Tell me where you want to go," the Doctor grinned, watching the elderly woman walk around the console, eyes sparkling with excitement. Not only was this the first time since the War that he'd had another living being in his TARDIS but this was a Time Lady… whether she knew it or not. "Backwards or forwards in time? It's your choice,"

"Forwards of course," she laughed, her hand unknowingly landing on the nob that would take them forwards. "I'm a science fiction writer, Doctor. Not a historical fiction writer,"

The Doctor grinned. "How far?" he asked, moving around the console to flip the correct switches, waving her off to get her out of the way. "A hundred years? No, that's a bit boring. How about ten thousand years in the future?"

Claudia tossed back her head in a laugh. "You think you're so impressive, don't you?"

"I _am_ so impressive," the Doctor exclaimed, looking insulted.

Claudia laughed again, shaking her head. "Then take off the kid gloves, Doctor. I may be an old woman but I still have my sense of adventure firmly in tact… where has yours run off to?"

"Fine," he nodded, rising to the challenge. "I know just the place. Hold on,"

Claudia's free hand that wasn't holding her cane gripped the side of the console as she felt the entire box shift and tremble around her. She watched the Doctor's enormous grin with interest as he watched the center column glow brightly as she assumed the box was flying through… something… to get to their destination. With one last shudder, the police box landed with a ping, allowing her to let go of the console to glance at the doors.

"Where are we?"

When he didn't anything, she glanced back to find him with his arms crossed over his chest, expression smug as he gestured toward the door with a nod.

"Contrary to popular belief," she began, moving toward the doors regardless. "I'm not one for surprises. My old heart can't handle it anymore, as much as I'd like to pretend I'm a young, wild thing,"

"Well, this is a relatively relaxed setting," he assured her as he followed behind her, eager to see her reaction.

Claudia gently pushed open the door, hesitant to step out of the safety of the box. She gripped the doorframe of the wooden box as she peered out, reluctant to go any further. Outside she found that the box had landed in a room, a relatively empty room with a series of seats like in an observatory, all aimed towards an empty wall. With a confused frown, she stepped out, the Doctor close behind her.

"Wait here,"

She did, looking around in an attempt to find what was so interesting about this location that had had the man so excited. Unable to find anything, she waited until she heard metal shifting that had her glancing toward the empty wall. After a moment, she realized that the wall was not a wall at all but instead a large window with shutters blocking out the view beyond the glass. She waited patiently as they opened, leaning heavily on her cane as the Doctor returned to stand beside her.

To her surprise, she found that the view behind the shutters was Earth.

"You lot," the Doctor sighed, crossing his arms over his chest as he looked out. "You spend all your time thinking about dying. Like you're going to get killed by eggs or beef or global warming or asteroids… But they never take time to imagine the impossible. Maybe they survive,"

Claudia remained silent, studying the scene before her. Never in her life would she believe that she'd get the chance to see a view that only satellites and the occasional astronaut had the privilege of getting to see firsthand. Sure, she'd seen pictures of the Earth taken from this angle, far above the surface where one could see the curvature of the planet… but this felt so different. Her eyes, as bad as they were in her old age, good pick out the intricacies of the clouds that surrounded the surface of the Earth, see the slight turn of the planet if she stared at it long enough. If she held stock still, she could feel the shifting of the craft she was standing in, feel the distinctly different gravity of the room she was in from the one she was used to on planet Earth. It was so different to see experience all of this firsthand.

"This is the year 5.5/apple/26,"

"More than five billion years in the future from when I was living," Claudia murmured to herself, not noticing the sideways glance the Doctor shot her.

"This is the day-" He suddenly stopped, causing her to look over at him curiously as he looked down at his watch. "Hold on…"

Out of the corner of her eye, just as the Doctor looked up, she saw the Sun suddenly expand with a burst of light. Her eyes, barely able to look at it in the first place, blinked at the ache of the glare as the light extended farther out around the Earth as if to overwhelm it. There was no doubt in her mind where the Doctor had taken her as she dropped her eyes to her feet to avoid the intensity of the sight.

"This is the day the Sun expands," she finished for him, looking up and over at him. "The end of planet Earth as I know it to be,"

"Welcome to the end of the world…" he smiled down at her with an all-encompassing wave of his arm, looking rather pleased with himself. "What do you think?"

"Strangely morbid," she admitted before snorting at him. "Are you trying to give a hint to an old woman who's getting up there in age?"

"What old woman?" he asked, glancing around the observation deck. "I see no such thing,"

Claudia couldn't help but laugh. "Watch it, charmer,"

" _ **Shuttles 5 and 6 now docking. Guests are reminded that Platform One forbids the use of weapons, teleportation, and religion**_. _**Earth Death is scheduled for 15:39, followed by drinks in the Manchester Suite**_ ,"

This caused the Doctor to perk up, taking Claudia's weathered hand in his to lead her towards the doors at the back of the room. He was carefully with his speed, aiding her when he needed to as she climbed the steps towards the door. When they reached the door he tucked her hand in the crook of his arm and continued at an easy pace that she could keep up with.

"This will be something I think you'll find quite interesting," he assured her.

"Is everyone British in the future?" Claudia suddenly asked as she followed him through the station towards their destination, hearing the Doctor chuckle at her. "Is English the common language throughout the universe that everyone knows or is it being translated somehow?"

"That's just the TARDIS," he told her, smiling at her over his shoulder as he continued to lead her down the hall. "The TARDIS gets inside your brain and translates. It just so happens that it translates with a British accent,"

"Instead of an American accent?" Claudia asked, interested when she herself had a very prominent American accent in comparison to the Doctor's Northern accent. "So I don't need to have a hearing aid to translate everything I hear for me?"

He shook his head. "Nope. It's a gift of the TARDIS,"

"Does that mean you aren't speaking English to me right now?" Claudia asked curiously.

"No, I am," he assured her. "But when we meet other species the TARDIS will translate so that you'll be speaking their language to them and you'll be hearing English when they speak to you,"

"Really?"

"Really,"

Claudia couldn't help the smile that grew on her face. "How intriguing,"

It seemed as if the Doctor knew where he was going as he led her through the hallways like a proper gentlemen, taking turns and moving through doors with confidence. Eventually they ended up in a large gathering room with a huge window at the other end meant to show off the view of the Earth. Along the edges of the room were columns lined with glass cases full of various items. Some of them didn't seem all that important to be displayed for everyone to see, like a few plain looking rocks and a bright red fez. However, it made her smile when she spotted a copy of JK Rowling's _Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone_.

"And why are the aliens here?" Claudia asked as they walked the length of the room towards the window. "This is obviously an observation deck and with the decorations scattered about I'd assume these are only the richest and most important people… Surely with the size of the universe, the death of the Earth can't be overly important in the grand scheme of things to warrant this kind of attention,"

"You'd be surprised," the Doctor countered, turning so that he could talk to her without craning his neck to the side. "When all the humans went traipsing out into the universe in search of the final frontier, they make quite a splash,"

Claudia snorted. "No doubt bonking everything in sight,"

"When all the people left the National Trust bought it up to preserve it. See down there? Gravity satellites holding back the sun,"

Claudia glanced out the window to indeed spot little metallic dots floating around the Earth in an obvious pattern. However, glancing down at the surface of the planet again, she realized that she could easily make out the shape of the United States which then tapered off down into Mexico before expanding into South America. But that couldn't be right… the continents shifted. That was how they got earthquakes and tsunamis. So how, after several million years, did Earth look like the one she'd just left?

"And how does the Earth look like that?" she asked, looking up at him. "The continents should have shifted… Can the Trust influence the positioning of entire continents?"

She watched a proud grin spread across the Doctor's face. "Clever one, you are,"

"But why does it look like modern day Earth?" she asked, pretending that what he was suggesting didn't sound absolutely impossible to her. "Why not restore the Earth to a more vintage state? Like when there was Pangea? Or better yet, a few thousand years from when I came from?"

"This is classic Earth," he assured her. "When species out in the universe think of the planet Earth, this is the one that comes to mind,"

She arched an eyebrow at him, not entirely believing. "Really?"

"Really," he grinned. "And now that the money's run out nature takes over. In about a half an hour the planet gets _roasted_ ,"

"And the wealthy have come from far and wide to observe it's death?" she continued for him, eyeing him critically as he grinned in seeming enjoyment.

Though she knew that the planet had long since been abandoned by humans and this was a natural end to Earth, she couldn't help but feel uncomfortable. Not only was this her home she was going to be watching burn but other species had come to watch, for the mere _fun_ of it. They weren't here to watch a historical monument go up in smoke for respect of its history. The only people here were wealthy aliens who were no doubt here because they had no better place to be. And what was even worse? She couldn't help the shiver that ran down her spine at the smile on the Doctor's face.

Without a second thought, she flicked her cane out at his shin. He yelped in surprise, giving her what might have been a puppy dog expression if not for the fact that he was a grown man in a leather coat. She made sure to keep her expression level, displaying to him just how unhappy she was.

"You really are a morbid one, aren't you?" she hissed at him under her breath so as not to draw attention from the aliens in the room. "I appreciate the opportunity to see the death of my planet. I realize that most would find it odd to bring a human to the death of their home planet and while this is not altogether pleasant, I do find it comforting to think that there is going to be someone here that can pay their respects to the planet," Now she held an accusing finger up at him. "However, I find it insulting that you stand there grinning like an idiot as if you find the end of my home planet all a good joke,"

He instantly sobered, the grin dropping so quickly she almost questioned whether it had been there at all in the first place. Now he stood staring down at her, looking both sad and guilty at her words… and possibly sympathetic? Though she didn't know this man, this alien very well, had barely known him more than an hour, his emotions where not foreign to her. She could see it somewhere in the depths of his eyes and in the set of his mouth as he stared down at her. He knew how she was feeling right now, waiting on the observation death for the death of Earth.

"I'm sor-"

"What happened to your planet?"

Shock brought his eyes up to meet hers, even a hint of fear as he stared down at her. He was shifting away from her uncomfortably, his hands shoving down into his pocket as far as they would go until he was stretching the leather over his shoulders. She could see the hurt of remembering in his eyes as he cast them down towards the floor, the tensing of his shoulders as he shifted from foot to foot as if he were debating on running away from her. What surprised her was recognizing emotions she hadn't see since her time on the streets when she was a teen; All sorts of people became homeless if life crushed them well enough. College graduates, the mentally impaired, the family man, the hermit, the war veteran. It had left her looking into the depths of people who had experienced unspeakable loss and lived with a crushing guilt. Sometimes, in that second between dreaming and waking, she felt like she knew that same feeling intimately… but then she'd wake up and it'd be gone.

Instead of letting him talk his way out from under her deduction, she continued speaking. "You said you were alone but you didn't mean alone in your ship. You meant that you were the last one, didn't you? That you're the last of the Time Lords. They all died in the War," He eyed her as she said that last sentence but she continued. "I can see it in your expression," she informed him, gesturing towards his face. "You empathize with me. You know what it is I'm feeling right now about Earth and you're remembering…"

She trailed off without really meaning to. It was as if she'd known how that sentence was supposed to end but had forgotten the name of the planet just as it had been sitting at the tip of her tongue. The feeling of familiarity surprised her and made her frown to herself. Why did feel like she knew the name of his planet as if she could say it if only she concentrated hard enough?

A fluttering in her chest caught her off guard. It felt like her heart was only working at half-mast and was desperately trying to catch up. The feeling was uncomfortable to the point of boarding on painful, causing her to grab at her chest, clenching a hand in her blouse. The action caught the Doctor's attention, bringing her back towards her with a concerned look.

"Are you alright, Claudia?"

She let out a shaky breath, focusing on the sensations in her chest until she was sure that the feeling had passed. It'd been uncomfortable but apparently only momentary. She also didn't feel any numbness in either of her arms as one might feel if they were to have a heart attack. Furthermore she noticed no issues with her vision or tremors in her hands.

"If you want we could leave-"

"No," she interrupted before he could finished. "I-"

"Who the hell are you?"

The two of them spun around to find a blue skinned alien rushing toward them. Claudia couldn't help the shocked expression that frozen her features, her eyes trailing over the first alien she'd ever seen in her life (not including the thing that had attacked her in her home). He was dressed in robes reminiscent of a suit found on Earth except much longer and bronze colored. On his blue skin were darker colored markings and a gem which stood out form his forehead, his eyes contrasting in a stark white with a deep black slit down the center like a snake's.

"Oh!" the Doctor grinned at the approaching figure, completely at ease. "That's nice, thanks,"

"But how did you get in?" the alien insisted, look rather distressed. "This is a maximum hospitality zone. The guests have disembarked! They're on their way any second now-"

"No! That's me," the Doctor interrupted the flustered man with a nod as he pulled something out from his jacket to show him. "I'm a guest. Look, I've got an invitation. Look, there you see? It's fine. You see? The Doctor plus one. I'm the Doctor and this is Claudia Thompson. She's my plus one. Is that alright?"

"Well, obviously," the blue man agreed, seeming to calm down into a much more stoic and polite façade. "Apologies, etcetera. If you're on board, we'd better start. Enjoy,"

The Doctor nodded at him and Claudia watched as the alien walked off to continue with his business of readying for his guests. However, her attention then moved to the little leather wallet in the Doctor's hand. Indeed, framed in the wallet was an invitation to Platform One to observe the solar death of planet Earth. But how had he gotten an invitation to come? Had he been planning to come and simply decided to bring her along with him?

"The paper's slightly psychic," the Doctor supplied, noticing her confused expression. "It shows them whatever I want them to see,"

"Like an instantaneous mental Etch-a-Sketch?" she supplied in layman's terms for herself, her eyes remaining on the slip of paper.

To her surprise, she watched the writing shift before her eyes. The invitation to be aboard Platform One turned into the word 'Fantastic'… no, instead there were a series of circles and dots but… Claudia blink twice as she stared at the paper, confused when she found that the paper did in fact say 'Fantastic'. Familiarity drew her eyes over the rounded writing as she read the paper again to herself. Someone… she understood that those circles and dots were a word?

Before she could think any more on it, her head started to feel light as her chest was acting up again and the Doctor had snapped the wallet shut and slipped it back into his jacket pocket with a pleased grin. Claudia took a deep breath in an attempt to ease the strange murmur in her chest.

"We have, in attendance, the Doctor and Claudia Thompson," the alien announced from his place behind the podium that was positioned next to the door. "Thank you. All staff to their positions," A clap of his hands brought a current of smaller blue aliens from seemingly nowhere, all of them rushing to their designated places. "Hurry now! Thank you! Quick as we can, come along, come along!

"And now, might I introduce the next honored guest representing the Forest of Cheem, we have trees. Namely Jabe, Lute and Coffa,"

The doors they had entered earlier opened to reveal… what Claudia could only assume where trees in humanoid form. A feminine figure, whose head looked very much like a stump of a tree, dressed in an elegant red and gold dress stood between two masculine shaped figures who followed after her like guards.

"Next, from the solicitors Jolco and Jolco, we have Moxx of Balhoon,"

A blue alien with a rather large forehead came rolling in on some sort of mobile seat.

"And next, from Financial Family Seven we have the Adherents of the Repeated Meme,"

A group of cloaked figures in a configured pattern came walking through the door together.

"The inventors of hyposlip travel systems, the brothers Hop Pyleen! Thank you,"

Two similar looking reptilian-like figures came in, one in black robes and the other in white, but both with fur collars.

"Cal 'Sparkplug',"

Two figures in hooped hoods wearing some sort of breath mask came in next.

"Mr. and Mrs. Pakoo,"

Two figures that vaguely reminded her of ravens in long black robes entered.

"The ambassadors from the City State of Binding Light,"

With these two, Claudia didn't bother trying to think up a description for them given that she doubted she could do it without someone making it sound insulting to the two.

"There will be an exchange of gifts, representing peace. If you could keep the room circulating, thank you,"

The first to approach them were the trees. The feminine alien, looking elegant in her dress, smiled between the two of them, bowing her head. "The gift of peace," the woman offered, turning to gently pick up a small cup with a sprout growing up out of the soil. She then turned and offered it to the Doctor while a very seductive smile… if trees could be seductive. "I bring you a cutting of my grandfather,"

"Thank you," the Doctor grinned, taking it only to hand it off to Claudia who took it carefully, eyeing it as if she expected it to start talking. A second passed before the Doctor suddenly seemed to realize he was being rude for not offering something in return and instantly started patting down the pockets of his coat. "Yes, gifts, um…" When he seemed to find nothing he stopped, straining as he cleared his throat. "I give you in return air from my lungs,"

Claudia watched with great amusement as the Doctor blew air out of his mouth gently at the woman who looked nearly ready to faint at the gesture. She was sure that if trees had the ability to blush, the woman would have been caught aflame with the heat of her cheeks. Her eyes fluttered as she smiled up at the Doctor as he straightened again.

"How… intimate," she remarked breathily.

"There's more where that came from," he replied flirtatiously, whether he realized it or not.

"I bet there is," the woman commented back, eyeing him with a suggestive smirk before she walked away, tailed closely by her companions.

Claudia couldn't help the deep chuckle that escaped her. Hearing her, the Doctor turned to her look confused until she explained. "What the charmer,"

Before the Doctor could comment to the contrary, which he seemed ready to do, the blue alien with the large forehead wheeled himself towards them.

"The Moxx of Balhoon," the Doctor addressed the alien with a deep bow at the waist.

"My felicitations upon this historical happenstance," the alien greeted in a voice much higher that Claudia had expected. "I bring you the gift of bodily saliva's,"

Before Claudia could react, she felt a wetness hit her face, just below her eye on the skin of her cheek. She crushed the urge to make a face or to wipe it away even as her whole body tensed at the bodily intrusion. No doubt any negative reaction to the 'gift' would be considered rude and she wasn't one to judge people's customs… so she waited until he wheeled away before wiping away the spittle.

"Ah! The Adherents of the Repeated Meme!" the Doctor greeted as the group of five cloaked figures with golden necklaces approached, all in step with each other. "I bring you air from my lungs,"

The figure waited until the Doctor was finished breathing at them before holding up a metallic clawed hand, a metal ball sitting in its palm. "A gift of peace in all good faith,"

The Doctor took it and tossed it in the air playfully before handing it over Claudia. She took it and ran a thumb over the ridges that lined the surface of the ball, as if it was supposed to be opened.

"The sponsor of the main event, please welcome… the Face of Boe,"

Claudia looked up to find a huge head housed within a glass cylinder being wheeled in, barely making it through the double doors. The face, which was all it seemed to be given the name of the creature, was aged like that of an elderly man's with a wide nose and squinted red eyes that looked similar to human pupils. Despite the sheer strangeness of watching a giant head being wheeled in, she could help but thing the face looked rather kind if not tired. However, the thing that Claudia couldn't get over were the tentacles coming off of the head, bouncing limply around the face as if it were hair.

"And last but not least, our very special guest. Ladies and gentlemen and trees and multiforms, consider the Earth, below. In memory of this dying world, we call forth the last human,"

That announcement caught Claudia's undivided attention as the doors opened again. She wasn't sure what she'd been expecting, perhaps a humanoid like herself, to come walking through the doors. The last thing she expected was to watch what looked like a tanning rack in use being rolled in followed by medical looking figures. It took a moment for her to spot the pair of blue eyes looking about and the pursed mouth at the center of the flesh colored trampoline. It took her a second to spot the brain suspended in a small canister of blue liquid situated on the contraption bellow the skin slab.

"The Lady Cassandra O'Brien Dot Delta Seventeen,"

"Oh, now don't stare!" the thing chuckled, a gravely yet feminine voice filling the room though Claudia was pretty sure she didn't see any vocal cords attacked to that mouth. "I know, I know. It's shocking, isn't it? I've had my chin completely taken away and look at the difference! Look how thin I am. Thin and dainty! I don't look a day over 2,000. Moisturize me, moisturize me!" One of the two medical looking figures stepped forward with a canister and attached to a nozzle which sprayed the skin lightly with some sort of liquid. "Truly, I am the last human. My father was a Texan, my mother was from the Artic desert. They were born on the Earth and they were the last to be buried in its soil. I have come to honor them and say goodbye," The trampoline started sniffling, blinking rapidly as if to ward of crying in front of the audience of people gather around her. "Oh, no tears, no tears. I'm sorry," she hiccupped as one of her attendance came forward to wipe beneath her eye with a tissue. "But behold! I bring gifts. From Earth itself, the last remaining ostrich egg!" A member of the staff entered with an ancient looking egg, carrying it delicately in their hands to present to the audience. "Legend says it had a wingspan of fifty feet and blew fire from its nostrils… or was that my third husbands? Who knows! Oh don't laugh. I'll get laughter lines!" However, upon realizing that no one was actually laughing with her, she coughed and began mumbling to herself until the doors opened behind her once again.

Claudia was interested to see a jukebox being wheeled into the room, one that was in surprisingly good condition considering this was several million years after their creation and end of their manufacturing. It was dark at the moment but she could see the tiny blue staff members moving to turn on the music player as Cassandra spoke again.

"And here, another rarity," the trampoline continued proudly. "According to the archives, this was called an iPod," Claudia snorted without meaning to, earning herself a look from a few of the aliens with sharp senses. "It stores classical musical music from humanity's greatest composers… play on!"

One of the staff pressed a button and a record fell into place, the song _Tainted Love_ by Soft Cell filling the room.

This time Claudia allowed herself to laugh. Of all the songs to have survived five million years into the future, she hadn't expected _Tainted Love_. Not that she had anything against the song but she didn't typically consider the song 'classical' music. It was nice to find that she recognized a few of the pieces of her time that had survived, making the whole experience feel less impossible and strange.

To her left she watched as the Doctor, still standing with his arms cross over his chest, started bobbing about to the music. She couldn't help but look at the man fondly, rolling her eyes at the antics of this strange person next to her. Eventually he noticed her watching him and grinned at her, turning to her with an excited expression.

"So what do you think?" he asked, looking genuinely interested in what she thought.

"This is definitely a lot to take in," she murmured, eyes still scanning the room as aliens mingled with each other. "Though I'm not entirely impressed by Miss O'Brien and her claim to being the last human in the universe. You told me that they all left and are traveling about the universe,"

"She's the last _pureblooded_ human,"

Claudia rolled her eyes at the idea. "I think she lost her right to claim herself the last human when she started snipping away entire body parts,"

The Doctor arched an eyebrow at her, as if he was surprised at her for her words. She frowned back at him, knowing that he was about to shame her for judging the trampoline. She saw it somewhere in the hardening of his eyes, as if he were disappointed in her.

"I am not saying being human is purely about the aesthetic appearance of a torso with an arm on either side," she interrupted when he went to open his mouth. "I'm sure she is the last pureblooded human. But on that same train of thought, there is also a great deal more to being human than having two human parents with human blood. It's a culture and a sense of humanity, compassion, intuition, creativity, curiousness, and community. It's the knowledge that their lives are fleeting and at any second their lives can end. They hurry through things and feel things so acutely because otherwise they'll miss it or forget it. We're meant to evolve and change and grow.

"That thing?" She pointed at Cassandra as the trampoline tutted to Cal 'Sparkplug' about something or other. "A single flab of skin with brain currents doesn't constitute the last human,"

This seemed to appease the Doctor, almost impress him as he turned away from her with a bit of a bounce.

"You were expecting me to be racist," she stated, frowning over at him even when he didn't look her in the eye. "I should be insulted, Doctor,"

"Never know what to expect with humans,"

"Maybe you should try expecting a bit more from them then,"

He didn't say anything to her, just continued staring ahead. "It's about time you tried meeting some of those aliens then. Go on," he encouraged her suddenly, inclining his head toward the crowd of aliens that had begun to mingle amongst one another. "Go on,"

She couldn't help the twinge of excitement and nervousness she felt at the center of her chest, her hand clenching around the end of her cane. The idea of having a conversation with one of those aliens… what if she accidently insulted one of them? What if it was their custom to begin and end a sentence with a certain word and to speak otherwise would be like cursing? What if it was their custom to not look directly into each other's eyes unless they were familiar with each other? What if they didn't understand her intonations and they mistook what she said for something different? What if she was accidentally sarcastic?

"Go on," he encouraged her, tapping her on the back as if to get her moving. It didn't feel that much different from a parent shooing a child along towards new friends at school.

However, it was what she needed as she began walking into the throng of aliens.

Claudia made sure to keep her eye on the Doctor the longer she traveled about the room, conversing with the various beings. The only real effort she made was to converse at least a little with everyone, everyone except for Miss O'Brien. Some were as easy to talk to as next-door neighbors, other with strange mannerisms that made it hard to interact. The Doctor seemed to be off in his own little world, conversing with those who came up to him but making no real more to socialize. He kept his eye on her just as much as she was trying to keep track on him.

' _Hello, Ms. Claudia Marie Thompson,_ '

Claudia visible jerked as the deep voice echoed within her head, the feeling of fondness and a hint of humor. As she looked over at the giant head floating in a strange fog within its jar, she couldn't help but get the feeling that this creature was old… impossibly old. It didn't necessarily have to do with its appearance or the creaking in his deep voice, she just felt it as if it were an impression she felt upon her very mind. However, the idea that she'd heard a voice in her head or gotten an impression of the thin in the giant jar was silly.

"There is no need to be so polite. I come in peace,"

' _It is good to see you. Especially someone who is so… human,_ '

"And what would make you say that?" she spoke without meaning to, stepping toward the jar with an interested tilt of her head. The thing blinked up at her, the large mouth twitching as if it was attempting to turn up into a smile but didn't have the energy. "I assume you heard the announcement. Miss O'Brien is the last human,"

' _I choose to ignore most of what drivels come out of Cassandra's mouth_ ,'

Claudia couldn't help the shocked expression that she shot him. The creature most definitely had a great deal of snark hidden behind that pane of glass.

' _And while she might be the last pureblooded human, I am certain she is not the only human in the room,_ '

So he most likely knew that she was a time traveler or else he assumed that she was a descendant of humans who'd come to observe the death of the Earth. "And I suppose you know that the same way you're able to talk to me? A form of telepathy,"

' _I am indeed speaking within your mind_ ,' he (she assumed that he wouldn't mind the masculine pronoun given the deep baritone of his voice) answered with a blink of his enormous eyes. ' _It is something I learned long ago when speaking vocally became impossible,_ '

"You _could_ speak?" she asked, giving him a curious look as she observed him closer. As far as she knew, and she could easily be wrong, you needed vocal chords in order to speak. There was no obvious indication that he had any, being a floating head. There was also no indication that he was wounded and had lost his speech that way. And if he'd had a neck at one point she didn't suspect that he would have survived losing it. Unless he was immortal and could survive as a giant head without a body. "How exactly does someone learn telepathy anyway? That doesn't seem like it'd be altogether easy to grasp,"

He made a sound that gave her the impression that if he'd had shoulders to shrug he would have shrugged them at her. ' _I had some time on my hands,_ '

She arched an eyebrow at him. Was that an indication that he'd once had hands or just a phrase he'd picked up when traveling through the universe?

' _Tell me, Ms. Thompson, what is it that you do for a job?_ '

"I'm an author," she informed him, her hand free of her cane delving into the pocket of her sweater. "I've written a few science-fiction books back in my time,"

' _Back in your time?_ '

"Yes," she answered curtly, not sure if she was allowed to admit to this alien that she was from the 21st century rather than from 5.5/apple/26. "And you, Face of Boe? What is that you do for a living? You're the one who is funding this whole thing, aren't you?"

' _Oh_ ,' he sighed, seemingly nonchalant but she could feel the smirk in his voice. ' _I've been involved in some stocks for a while now. It's racked up a bit extra,_ '

She gave him a skeptical look. "How long is a while?"

This time a rumbling laugh echoed in her head as the head jiggled as if he were physically making the warm sound. ' _You wouldn't believe me_ ,'

"Try me,"

' _Maybe another time… And what is that, Ms. Thompson?_ '

She frowned at the sudden change of topic. His bulbous eyes were focused on the pocket of her sweater where her hand was hidden away except for long chain that had escaped out of the pocket. She frowned down at it, pulling out the watch to look at. She stared down at it for a moment, observing the pocket watch carefully as if seeing it for the first time.

She frowned as her thumb travelled across the lid, feeling the intricate indentions of the engravings on the watch face… She frowned down at it as she realized she had no idea what the engravings were. She'd had this watch since before she could remember and yet she had no idea what the intricate engravings set into the metal were let alone what they meant. And she was sure that they meant something. She knew it was writing and not a simple design. She didn't know how she was so sure but… Why had she never noticed the design on the lid?

"This was my late husband's pocket watch," she answered without really thinking about it, running her thumb over the lid absentmindedly. Indented into the lid of the silver colored metal were a series of overlapping circles… circular writing? She was sure it was writing. "I gave it to him on our wedding night and he gave it back to me on his deathbed,"

' _How long have you had it?_ '

"It's long since been a broken old thing,"

' _Is it?_ '

She looked back up at the alien to frown at it, confused by the question. "Of course it is,"

' _How do you know it is? How did it break?_ '

"I don't know… it just is," she answered, glancing down at the watch as if it were a curious thing.

She couldn't remember when exactly it had broken or how. She'd given it to Alistair… perhaps he'd broken it and had mentioned it to her in passing. She hadn't broken it. It just was. She observed the watch now, bringing it close to her face. Why couldn't she remember how the watch broke? The watch had been in her possession since she'd been a little girl and yet she couldn't remember where she'd gotten it. Why had she thought that Alistair might have been the one who'd broken it when she could remember not wanting to open it when she was young? She suddenly realized that she'd never seen inside the pocket watch herself. This was a shocking revelation to say the least. It was her first possession and yet she had no idea what the thing looked like on the inside. She barely knew what it looked like closed, now that she thought of it. When she tried to picture it in her mind, all she could see was a silver-y metal disk. It was almost as if she was remembering the watch without her glasses on, blurred and impossible to really observe in detail. And now that she wanted to?

Sometimes, just before she fell asleep, she could hear a voice. It wasn't hers as she knew it to be, but it was familiar to her nonetheless. It was a soft voice of a woman, whispering to her of things she couldn't hope to understand. She whispered to her adventures, worlds, cultures and more as if she'd lived it. Years ago, Claudia had used those words and dreams to create the books that had subsequently made her a famous sci-fi writer. Nearly every one of her books had stemmed by some lingering story from that voice or some vision of a dream just after waking.

But sometimes… sometimes she heard it and it wasn't telling her stories. It wasn't the snarky storyteller… It was sad. The voice, no matter how young it may have sounded initially, also sounded older than the sun with the sadness of a million lifetimes. She could hear the heavy tears and breaks as she whispered of lost children, of a lost love, of a lost lifetime…

"My husband asked me once if I wanted to open it," she murmured, without taking her eyes off the watch.

' _Why didn't you?_ ' he asked, sounding genuinely curious.

"I- I told him it was broken and that I shouldn't open it if it were broken…" she looked up from the watch to the alien before her. She felt infinitely confused and she wasn't altogether sure why. "He told me to open it when I wasn't afraid to break it,"

' _Are you still afraid to break it?_ '

"I've been alive a very long time, but…" she stopped, feeling like she was coming to a revelation that had been sitting at the back of her mind for a long time. "But now I am alone with nothing more than an empty home and a broken pocket watch. And I've never much liked being alone,"

The impression of a smile made her smile back at the alien.

She however, felt an involuntary surge of sadness run through her as she said that. Most of her life had been spent alone until she'd met her Alistair. He'd given her a partner, a family, hope for the future only to take that all with him when he'd died. For the past fifteen years she'd been alone in that big house, simply waiting to sleep and not wake up.

The arrival of the Doctor had been a surprise, the arrival of the robot a secret blessing that had allowed her to travel to this place. Never would she have thought that places like this that she'd dreamed of would actually exist beyond the atmosphere of her Earth. However, this strange man had proven her irrevocably wrong and gone farther to awe her with the lot of it. This was something that would stay with her until the end of her days, a stark memory against a field of grey days that led to the day she died.

Grey, boring and lonely. Because she _would_ be alone. Once the Earth was burnt up by the Sun, the Doctor would load her back up into his machine, she would say thank you for allowing her to such strangeness and he would drop her off at her home where there would hopefully be no robot. This was a single trip for a little old lady who'd needed saving. Even if she could convince the alien who owed her nothing to not take her home, she was too old for a life like this. This man was a ball of energy that wanted to continue moving. She would be a fixture on the wall of his machine, aging slowly as the ages flashed past them until she finally died.

That thought made her sad… made a depressed ache in her chest at the thought.

Alone again.

"You know, people think that if you live to be my age you should be grateful to be alive but that's not how it works," she murmured, mostly to herself. "You have to find a reason to get up in the morning and even then life can turn around in spit in your face,"

She looked up at him when she felt a surge of sadness that wasn't hers. He was looking up at her with huge red eyes that seemed dull except for that one hint of emotion. Pity.

' _I hope to be seeing you again, Ms. Thompson. However, I must be going. I am, in essence, the host after all,_ '

"Of course," she nodded, stepping out of the way as the jar began to roll. "It was a pleasure meeting you, Face of Boe,"

' _Until next time_ ,'

Claudia was left standing in the midst of the observation deck, an elderly woman clutching a pocket watch in her pocket among aliens from across the universe. Her eyes were unfocused as thoughts flashed through her head with a speed that reminded her of a movie montage as she tried to grasp anything to slow down the train that seemed to be chugging on without her permission...

* * *

 _Tick tock goes the clock_

 _A thief did come and play_

 _Tick tock, a capsule lost_

 _And flew from Gallifrey_

* * *

... The red grass looked nearly black in the night that hung over her, stretching out for miles before her until the darkness melted together to create the horizon. The night smelled of hot sand and morning dew mixed into a refreshing breeze that wafted her hair from her face and stirred her heavy robes around her body. She kept her hands out at her sides, feeling the soft ruby blades against the palms and intertwining between her fingers as she walked. She spun once to see the golden tower silhouetted against the mountains in the distance, stretching up the sky until she was sure she could see the spire bending in the breeze...

* * *

 _Tick tock goes the clock_

 _The Doctor in his TARDIS_

 _Tick tock, no matter what_

 _He helps us all regardless_

* * *

... She stared in horror as she saw heard the mechanical zap of a laser just before her cousin flinched. The man stumbled forward a step, his dull eyes met hers own before he fell forward, landing in her open arms. There was a moment of silence as everyone just stared at the empty where he'd last stood while alive, nothing but silence and emptiness filling the space. And in that instant, it felt as if her heart had splintered yet again, her spirit shattering as she lost yet another person who she loved. Her cousin was suddenly gone and there had been so much she'd wanted to tell him, so much which had gone unsaid and would remain that way. He was gone.

Her breaths came in pained gasps as she clutched the body of her eldest cousin to her, her eyes tearing up as a sob ripped at her throat to choke her. The emptiness in her chest throbbed with a freezing burn that felt like the coldest winter and the hottest summer, leaving her completely useless as people screamed in terror around her. She buried her face her cousin's shoulder trying to take deep breaths instead of the short gasps that were currently the only source of oxygen she was getting.

"No! Please… _No!_ "

* * *

 _Tick tock goes the clock_

 _The Time War soon began_

 _Tick tock, "Return to us!"_

 _The Doctor turned and ran_

* * *

... Late into the nights she would find her way to the very depths of the engineering workshops where her husband worked. She could hear him long before she actually caught sight of him, the sound deep baritone of his voice muttering and the clattering of tools filtering up to her. Eventually, as she maneuvered around the various work stations and projects left behind until morning arrived, her eyes would fall on the Stark, her Stark. She could see him hunched over one of his many projects, working on intricate wiring or scribbling out incorrect equations. He was faced away from her as he moved his hand across the workbench to snatch up various tools she recognized, other that she didn't. Even as she made her way towards him, he didn't make any show that he knew that she was there but she had no doubt that he knew. He made no break in his work, not even a hiccup of movement as he worked metal and recalibrated software.

While most women of her world ignored the appearance of their partners—because what was the point if they were only going to change their face if they ever passed—she couldn't help but find certain aspects of her husband quite appealing. Often she admired his hands, agile as they were as they worked on his numerous projects whilst being ingrained with oils that he could never hope to ever rid from the creases of his skin. Sometimes she couldn't help but be intrigued by his eyes. There were days when they shined a bright brown with mischief, other days when they darkened to black with intense depression that she feared she might never pull him back from. Oh, and his smile. Most of the people who knew him would assume his smile was that cocky smirk that was almost fixed to his face, a constant crooked upturn of his mouth. What few other than herself was aware of was that his smile was something extremely rare… a full beam of teeth that crinkled the corners of his eyes. She loved that particular smile. It interested her and distracted her from anything else.

Suddenly he turned to look up at her, offering her that particular smile and asked; "Something you wanted, dear Lady?"

* * *

 _Tick tock goes the clock_

 _When shall he return?_

 _Tick tock, until that day_

 _Gallifrey will burn_

* * *

... She couldn't help but be fond of him. While the rest were uptight beings of power who were all tempted to be vengeful gods… he wasn't. He was a being with a tool to fix instead of a weapon to destroy. He was a being with a time machine instead of a warship. He was a being with two hearts; one to feel and the other to harden...

* * *

 _Tick tock goes the clock_

 _The Moment had arrived_

 _Tick tock and just his luck_

 _The Doctor had survived_

* * *

... Curiosity was got her into trouble more often than not. Her father couldn't stand her most time in the same way she couldn't stand him. While she was curious, he was greedy; while she wanted to learn, he wanted to dominate; while she wanted to respect, he wanted to violate; while she wanted knowledge, he wanted power. However, she had led her people into a pursuit of neutrality despite the power they held. She was one of the first concerned with intergalactic relations, one of the first to farm a proper time machine, one of the first to begin drawing up laws for their people to follow regarding time traveling, one of the first to begin traveling as a curator for their people.

But there was always that one that couldn't help but interfere...

* * *

 _Tick tock goes the clock_

 _And all alone he flew_

 _Tick tock, but he was wrong;_

 _Of Time Lords there were two_

* * *

… That morning began as it always did; a gasp in the darkness. For a moment, just one painful moment, she could believe her husband was alive in his workshop tinkering and her children breathing in the sweet scent of their children's hair while the hell just outside her shelter was a terrifying nightmare. For just a second she wasn't a lone warrior about to run through the streets of her half destroyed and burning world, away from the metal monsters that threatened to exterminate her as if she were vermin. In that second between sleep and wakefulness she could believe that she wasn't in the center of a battlefield, of crumbling buildings and piled bodies. But then terror would creep up her spine as she stared into the darkness of her broken down shelter, her voice begging for the this reality not to be true… to please not be alone…

* * *

 _Tick tock goes the clock_

 _A Time Lady had landed_

 _Tick tock, and all alone_

 _On Earth she was stranded_

* * *

… Again, she spun, her eyes aloft toward the purple night sky. There were millions of stars strung out across the sky, stars that were suns surrounded by their own solar systems, solar systems that were home to planets with their own aliens and cultures. All of it hung above her head like books in a library, too high for her to reach without some sort of ladder to take her up toward them.

And she'd visit all of them…

* * *

 _Tick tock goes the clock_

 _The fob watch is to blame_

 _Tick tock, the lady stopped_

 _Remembering her name_

* * *

"Claudia!"

Hands gripped her shoulders firmly, spinning her around to look up into crystalline blue eyes that shined with fear and worry. It took her a moment to remember where she was and who she was looking at, another moment to question why he looked so worried.

"What? What's wrong?" she asked, frowning when she realized that her hip hurt from being spun around to face the man. "And next time, can you pity a feeble old woman and not spin her around like she's a dreidel? I've got a bad hip,"

He instantly let her go, glancing down at her cane as she righted herself. "Oh… sorry,"

She froze in her tutting at the young alien man when she felt the station shutter beneath her feet, causing her to look out the window. A mental image of broken up pieces of the Earth hurling towards the station and breaking through the window made her heart pick up a bit. However, the Earth didn't look any different, no pieces missing. Furthermore, she couldn't see anything flying towards them at all.

Then why had the station shuttered?

"That's not supposed to happen," the Doctor murmured, suddenly appearing at her elbow as he looked around the observation deck. "That wasn't a gravity pocket. I know gravity pockets, and they don't feel like that," He glanced down at her and she could see a curiosity in his eyes, as if the idea of finding out what the shutter had been was more interesting than the planet outside. "What do you think, Ms. Thompson?" he asked with an interested expression. "Listen to the engines, they're pitched up about 30 Hertz. Is that dodgy or what?"

She listened carefully, though she didn't have any real hope of hearing what he was. She'd long since began losing her hearing in her old age and had since debated getting a hearing aid. After a few seconds she gave up, hearing nothing but a very basic rumble of engines intermingled with alien gossip.

"What do you think, Jabe?"

"It's the sound of metal," the tree woman admitted with a shrug as she appeared beside Claudia. "That doesn't make any sense to me,"

"Where's the engine room?"

"I don't know. But the maintenance duct is just behind our guests' suite, I could show you…" she answered before glancing at Claudia, gesturing to her with a branch shaped hand. "… and your wife,"

Claudia arched an eyebrow at the woman. " _Really?_ "

The Doctor frowned, gesturing between them both. "The two of _us_?"

"Do you expect me to accept any port in a storm?" Claudia scoffed.

"Hey!" the Doctor exclaimed, looking offended.

"So she is _not_ your wife?" the tree woman clarified.

The Doctor shook his head. "No,"

"Partner?" Jabe continued.

"No,"

"Concubine?"

"Nope,"

"Prostitute?"

"Excuse me!" Claudia snapped, slamming her cane into the tiled floor so hard that it made a loud bark of sound as her wrist ached. The action shocked Jabe into silence and drew a few of the aliens' attentions to her as she scowled at the tree. "My arthritis is bothering, my social security check was late, and I just realized I haven't showered with a man in fifteen years," She ignored the Doctor's uncomfortable cough beside her. "Follow that up with a murderous robot and an insult by the shrub queen and I think I've hit a new low," Now she turned to the Doctor, whose ears had turned heated shade of pink. "Now you go put out the fire beneath her canopy while I'll be in the observation deck being feeble,"

With that, she turned to head out the door, ready to find her way back to the room where the TARDIS had been parked. However, before she made it too far down the hall, she felt a hand grasp hers to place it within the crook of an elbow. Claudia looked up in surprise to find the Doctor walking beside her, giving her a mischievous look.

"Allow me to escort you, Ms. Thompson?"

She rolled her eyes at his antics but accepted the arm regardless, allowing her to lead her down the halls. It didn't take them long to arrive at the deck but only for them to find the TARDIS being rolled away by some of the staff. Claudia took a moment to be worried before she realized that the Doctor himself didn't seem all that concerned, merely telling them to park it properly and not to scratch the blue time machine. Before the TARDIS disappeared completely around the corner, one of the small staff members walked up to him and squeaked handing him a card. Claudia leaned into him so that she could see that the card said ' _Have a nice day_ ' in some sort of writing that she had no idea why she could read.

"Does the TARDIS allow me to read different languages too?" she asked him, eyeing the slip until it disappeared into his jacket pocket.

"Caught that, did you?" he asked with a smirk, seeming pleased with her. "That was Meridian, pretty looking but impossible when you're trying to describe the difference between a blue box and a wet pillowcase,"

Claudia snorted at the idea. "And what was the writing earlier you showed me?"

He shot her a confused look. "What writing?"

"The one on the psychic paper," she reminded him, gesturing towards his coat pocket. "The word was 'Fantastic' but the writing was a bunch of circles,"

When she turned to look at the Doctor, she found him outright staring down at her. His face was completely neutral to anything she'd said but she could see the change in his posture and in his eyes. His shoulders were tense as he held her hand in the crook of his elbow, his hands gripping tightly she could see the whitening of his knuckles. Then there was the shocked look in his eyes that may have been bordering on horrified. If she'd known him a bit better she might have been able to name the emotions flashing through his eyes a bit more accurately.

"What?" she asked, confused by his reaction to her.

Finally he seemed to get a handle on his face, settling into a believable nonchalance as he flashed her a smile. "That was just a bunch of scribbles, not really a language,"

"Scribbles?" she repeated, frowning as she thought about how those 'scribbles' had looked vaguely similar to the engravings on her pocket watch. "Then why could I read it?"

"Maybe you were imaging," he tried, starting them back down the hall towards the observation room the TARDIS had previously been parked in. "Never know what random thoughts might trickle out onto that daft old paper if you're not careful,"

She didn't believe him for a second but couldn't grasp why he was lying to her about being able to read a language. What's more, she couldn't understand why her watch seemed to have the same writing that he'd shown her engraved into it.

* * *

 **Author's Note: What are your thoughts on this chapter? Any good? Should I not have taken them out of order? Do you guys mind terribly that Rose wasn't in it? What did you think of the Face of Boe poking his big head into our lady's business? What did you think about the flashbacks and the poem? **

**Are we all ready for a Time Lady? Will you guys miss Ms. Claudia Thompson? I'm become quite attached to her... I hope you guys will like the Lady but also will sort of mourn the loss of our human Lady. (Also, check out my Pinterest for a peek at her current look and future looks to come.)**

 **REVIEW PLEASE! : )**


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